Russian Potash Firms Complete Merger; May Acquire Belarus Producer

6:36 AM MDT | June 17, 2011 | Ian Young

Uralkali (Berezniki) and Silvinit (Solikamsk), Russia's biggest producers of potash, have completed their previously announced merger. The deal creates the world's second-biggest supplier of potash by capacity, behind PotashCorp and ahead of Mosaic, with production of about 11 million m.t./year, analysts at investment bank Troika Dialog (Moscow) say. Russia has an estimated 32% of the world's proven potash reserves. The transaction took the form of a cash-and-shares acquisition by Uralkali of Silvinit, and the merged company takes the Uralkali name. Russian...